Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-14
THE SOLID south
WILL 1T BREAK ON PROTECTION?
Controversies of the Leading Southern
Journals.

lanta Constitution and several other South
ern journals are engaged in an active dis
cussion with the Louisville Courier
Journal and the Charleston Meas and C0ur-
Ter concerning the merits and benefits of
a protective tariff policy. Protection is
gaining adherents very rapidly in Georgia,
Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee, where
the great increase in iron and other manu-
featuring works is making a ''boom" in
real estate and business.
1t is evident from the discussions among
Southern men here and the attitude of in
fluential Southern newspapers that in
several Southern States the protective"
policy is going to have very soon, and per-
haps rs early as next year so strong a fol-
lowing that the question may break up
the Democratic SOlidity in the South.
The Republican statesmen hereaboutS
pay singularly little attention TO this I'M
portant political change. They continue
to regard ''the South as a region to be
blacklisted by them in order to keep votes
in the North.
q. Our policy" said q Republican who
was spoken to about this, lis to wait, and
meantime 10 keep alive the Southern OPP
preston Of the negro. If, as you think,
the South, or an important part of it,
turns to protection they can join us if they
want to, or if they don't like us they can
nominate 4 Democratic protectionist can
didate for the Presidency, like Mr.. Ran
dali. | am q prOtecti0nist before / am a
Republican, and my belief is that the pro-
tective tariff policy is safer while both
parties contain a strong protection ele"
ment than if the matter came to a square
issue between the parties"
MR.. GREELEY'S POLICY.
| fHorace Greedy were alive the present
change in Southern opinion on protection
would fill him with lively joy; for it justi-
ties his course toward the South some years
after the close of the war. Mr.. Greeley re-
garded high protection rs the most I'M
portant question in this country after sla-
very. He was q Republican because slavery
was the foremost and sole issue before and
during the war; but when emancipation
was accomplished and the Union re-estab-
lished he believed the next struggle would
be between high and low tariff men, and
he strongly desired toget help in the South
to maintain the protective system.
The course he prescribed for the Tribune
and his own policy toward the South, be-
ginning with the part he took in becoming
bail for Jefferson Davis, had this for its
motive, and the abuse he received from
prutectionist Republicans for his our
and that of his paper irritated him more
because of what he called the stupidity of
his friends and natural allies than because
he felt personally hurt by it.
A gentleman who was on friendly terms
with Mr.. Greeley, though opposed to his
tariff views, said TO him in 1871:
II think | understand very well, Mr..
Greeley, why you favor mildcr measures
than your party toward the South; you
ioresee that when their great natural
wealth begins to be developed they will
naturally become protectiOnists, and you
don't want to ALLEVIATE them too far from
the Republican party, but want the South
ern alliance to help you maintain high
tariffs"
''Yes,r said Mr.. Greeley, ''and the con-
founded fools who are abusing me don't
see it. They can't see further than the
end of their noses. They can't see that rs
manufactures spread toward the South
New England and the farming West will
become free traders, and we'eve got TO
look South for help or the COMPOUNDED
country will he carried for free trade"
Mr.. WATTERSON EXPOSES A FALLACY.
NJ U,ttarCOn Of tho Jon;cy;lla I,,.;r.-
Journal, Is trying to persuade Southern
men that the present bushes ''bOOm,"
based on the establishment of iron and
other projected" industries, is not real
and sound, but ficticious. His arguments
do not make much impression on men who
see their waste lands at last becoming
valuable, towns wonderfully increasing in
population, capital drawn into their cOun-
try by millions of dollars at u time and n
considerable part Ofthe population getting
wealthy. The tact seem to the
Southern men against Mr.. Waiter
son. They are so because
the manufacturers in the South are getting
rich Just rs the Pennsylvanians have got
rich, by a general and forced contribution
from the whole country under the name of
protection. As protective duties make
iron dear to the whole country the Ala
bama or Tennessee or Georgia iron man
gets his share OF the profits guaranteed by
high duties. As he can make iron more
chcaply than his Pennsylvania competitor
he is getting n greater share than the Penn
S~ylvanian Of the general contribution
forced from the pockets of the whole ma
ton for the benefit of the iron masters.
Mr.. WattersOn is very ably demonstrating
to Southern planters and farmers that they
do not gain but lose by 4 protective tariff,
because their products must be sold abroad
in competition with the worlds prod
uctS and at the cheapest rates, while the
protected products they Use must be paid
for by them at the highest rates created by
high duties. But he is not making much
Roadway in the manufacturing part of the
South, because this region is getting 4 con-
siderable part of the plumber which arises
from protection; and besides this he feels
lust now in a very exhilarating way the
stimulus of protection, which in a new
country operates rs Franklin in one of his
letters says the issue of paper money work
ed in Philadelphia in his time. 1t was
like music, he wrote; it seemed to awaken
the community into new life; everybody
was happy; the general cry was, 1.-THE
more paper money the better" But very
soon came the reaction, the paper was
d%iscrcdited, business collapsed, and after q
sort of industrial spree the community
woke up with n very bad headache.
NEW ENGLAND LEARNING BETTER.
Meantime, while in Virginia, Georgia,
Tennessee and Alabama they sang the
praises of protection, here is 4 notice from
the Boston HcrGd that in New England
they begin to think they have had enough
of it,
There is a lOurishing tariff reform club
at Franklin, in this State, and next
Wednesday evening it will hold a meeting.
which will be addressed by Mr.. j. b. Sar-
gent, of New Haven, Conn. the well known
manufacturer and tariff reform advocate,
on THE Burdens Of the Protective Tariff
from the Standpoint Of a Manufacturer. y
The formation Of such clubs for honest dis
~cuSSion is a hopeful indication.
Burned by Coal Oil.
Special Telegram 10 he Sunday RcJacr,
New CUMBERLAND, February IL